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Topic: todays "chisel" out (Read 1685 times)

I did a cut out today... more of a "chisel" out since their entry was in a brick wall. I checked the inside of the home first and drilled a test hole and found that there was a "false wall" so with that I assumed that they were above that wall, so outside I went. It went rather well and took a few hours....ended up getting 8 frame of brood and 9 frames of honey. I borrowed a bee vac from a frined (box in a box design) and vac'd up the bees but when I went to hive them they were a big ball of 'candied" bees... id don think that they are going to make it so i will probably jut add the brood to my other hives.

My questtion is this: when I vac's up the bees they were on the comb not swimming in honey and i was carefull about taking up any pieces of comb/honey or bees that were obviously sticky≥.... so if i were taking up dry bees why were they a gooey mess afterwards?

you can see my progression of pictures i took when i remembered :) you'll notice one pic where the bees were just gathering on the wall kind of staging...there was no entry but it made it easy to vac them up enjoy! with it being mt first cutout i had a great time!

The goo didn't come from sucking up honey. It came from inside the bees. Either too much vacuum or too much heat, or both.

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"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

looks like you did a good job of getting them out. I think I like the bee vac like robo made better, it gives the bees somewhere to stand and clean themselves, well at least there is more surface area inside for them to spread out.

Maybe after you put them on the brood and comb they can spread out and clean each other.

G3

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those hot bees will have you steppin and a fetchin like your heads on fire and your @ss is a catchin!!!

"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

Heat can be just as big of a problem as honey. Keep the vac out of the sun and ventilate them (an provide water) as soon as possible. That is why I made the slide off top on mine. On hot days, I pour water into the frames before I start.

If they overheat and start dying, you will end up with a wet mass of dead bees. Trust me, I learned the hard way. My original bee vac had plexiglass windows and it didn't take long in the sun for it to turn into an oven :-\

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"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison

I think it took about 3 hours not including cleanup. The hardest part was chiseling out the bricks.....I didnt have any bricking equipment so I was doing it with prybars and hive tools...needless to say I went and bought some new equipment :) That colony went back about 3 feet from the brick wall and was between the two floor joyces.